Hallelujah and amen! Friday is here, friends!

I’m linking up again with Darci, Natasha, and friends for Five on Friday! I really enjoyed this link up last week, and thought I’d do it again and take the opportunity to share five things that I’m loving this week!

 

1. Lennon and Maisy Stella

For the past few weeks, the boys and I have been obsessed with Lennon and Maisy Stella. If I need a little pick-me-up, I just go to their You Tube channel and listen to their perfect harmonies. I may never hear the Lumineers again without wishing it was Lennon and Maisy singing instead. And I really like the Lumineers!

I just think these girls are fantastic, and I love them on Nashville.

Their cover of “Call Your Girlfriend” is just fantastic! Enjoy!

 

2. Oh The Places You’ll Go

A few weeks ago, I repinned this pin, which also happened to get repinned a few times. But anyway… the idea is that you get a copy of a good “life” book for your kids. I like Dr. Seuss’s, “Oh The Places You’ll Go.” So I got a copy of the book for Hudson and Hayes, and on the last day of school I asked their teachers to all sign the inside of the book and write messages to the boys.

 

I just love this idea so much, and the idea is that all of their teachers from now until they finish high school can sign the book! (Mel from The Larson Lingo also blogged about this yesterday and she did it for her kids, too.)

 

3. A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson

So Boo Mama’s book is finally out! And I can tell you that if I have any moments of free time this weekend I will be reading this book! I just love Sophie’s writing voice and love her stories of the south and of family. She writes with so much heart and humor. Get this book!

4. Swim Lessons

Hudson had swim lessons this week. He did a fantastic job! This is his fourth summer to take them from the same guy and this year he wasn’t even remotely scared or nervous. We still have one more week of lessons and I am just so excited to see how well he does at the end of that week! I forgot my big camera at lessons yesterday and I only have a couple of not-so-great iPhone photos.

5. Vitamin C- Graduation

I was texting with my friend, Kristen, last night and we were sharing our mutual love for Carrie Underwood’s new song, “See You Again.” (A seriously fantastic song.) And we thought it was so smart of her to time the release with graduation time, because the lyrics are perfect for a graduation song.

When I finished high school in 2000 (I still want to say it like Conan O’Brien and sing, “In the year 2000.”), the song “Graduation” by Vitamin C was very popular. I mean…. I really have no words. I am pretty sure we thought it was a good song, and now I’m just rolling my eyes at my 17-year-old self. What unfortunate music choices we had.

What was the graduation song on the radio when you graduated? Our class exited the graduation auditorium to Jimmy Buffett’s “Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes.”

*You can still enter the Erin Condren Life Planner giveaway!

*Be sure to check out a post I published late yesterday afternoon about shopping for summer clothes for your boys!

It’s no secret that I absolutely love to entertain.

But we had a little kink thrown into our plans when we sold our house a few months ago, packed up all of our things (included my tableware and serving pieces), and moved in with my husband’s grandmother while we are building our house.

I’ve had to get a little bit more creative when I want to host dinner or just have a nice family brunch.

Mother’s Day was coming up, and I was looking for some ways that I could add a little color to the table without having to go out and buy a lot of serving pieces or new glasses or new linens.

I looked around my husband’s grandmother’s house and was instantly inspired! Her pantry is full of mason jars. She probably has 50 of them in all sizes!

I had heard about the new Crystal Light Liquid, but hadn’t tried it yet. I thought this would be a great, pretty, colorful drink to serve.

I already had a white table cloth, so I started thinking of ways that I could bring some color to these ordinary mason jars. I cut fun circles out of regular paper and I found this fun glitter circle garland that I cut up into just single circles.

I put the circles on some string and tied the string around the jars. I filled the jars with flowers that I picked up at the grocery store.

I put the glitter circles around the mason jars, and the paper circles on the table, to kind of give the table a polka dot look.

I chose the Strawberry Lemonade Crystal Light Liquid and added two drops per eight ounces of water to get a fun, vibrant pink color. I filled the jars and the pitcher up with strawberries for little bit of extra color.

I already had some cute plastic straws that coordinated with all of the colors on the table, so I threw those in, too. My kids love drinking out of fun straws.

Colorful, fresh flowers always add something beautiful and new to any room or table, and I love just picking them up at the grocery store when we go.

All of the little changes cost less than $25! I had all of the containers, and I had all of the paper to make the fun, colorful circles. But I love all of the pops of color and the way it adds so much to otherwise ordinary mason jars and a boring white table.

You can check out all the new flavors on the fun and colorful Crystal Light Liquid website. For a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card, simply leave a comment below answering the question,

“How do you take ordinary items from around the house and spruce them up to add some color to your table?”

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the
following unique term in your tweet message: “”#SweepstakesEntry””; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post”
c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/14 – 6/4.
Be sure to visit the Crystal Light page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

 

June 4 is finally here, and that means that the brand new Erin Condren 2013-2014 Life Planner is available for purchase. Purchase and personalization!

This will be my third Life Planner in as many years, and I am so excited to get my hands on mine to see the fun updates and new designs.

my 2012-2013 Life Planner

This year, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday columns are all on the left side of the coil when the book is opened. I like to use each daily column to plan out my day. I list appointments and also include my to-do list for that day in that day’s column.

The new planner will have additional lines below each individual day for meal planning, exercise routine, or whatever you may want to put there. I plan to use it for exercise routine and meal planning. A little bit of both for accountability and planning.

In the monthly view section, I make sure to put the big things like soccer games, vacations, family visits… basically the things that involve the whole family.

Each page has a goals and notes section that I can use to carry over to-dos and goals from the previous week and other items that just need to get done.

The cover and monthly tabs are all laminated, which is great, because I carry my planner around in my bag with me and it needs to be as durable as possible. And the aluminum coil is also super durable and has held up great for me over the last twelve months.

I love the stickers in the back of the planner that I can put on specific dates to mark special occasions, doctor appointments, baby showers, or anything I want to use them for. This year, I’m super excited that we can customize our stickers!

I’m also super excited about the new Elastic Bands that can be used to keep my planner closed. Or as a hair tie when I’m in a jam!

Erin Condren has also made it possible to add on notepads, a pen holder, and brand new markers.

And then, there’s the brand new Erin Condren Life Planner Gold Edition! This is just so gorgeous!

10 lucky readers will win a brand new 2013-2014 Erin Condren Life Planner! With all the bells and whistles. You can customize it however you want to and add on any of the fun extras!

And 1 extremely lucky grand prize winner will receive $500 worth of prizes from ErinCondren.com. This could include the Life Planner, the Functional Family system, an iPhone cover, an acrylic tray, or stationery and return address labels. Seriously, y’all, everything at ErinCondren.com is just adorable and functional, and this one lucky winner will have the absolute best time shopping!

All the Hostesses:

Nina Helleny from According to Nina, Erin from Blue-Eyed Bride, Kelly from Kelly’s Korner, Jessica from The Mom Creative, Katie from Marriage Confessions, Akemi from Mommy Guru, Kacia from Coconut Robot, Jennifer from Life in the Green House, Megan from In This Wonderful Life and Sheaffer from Pinterest Told Me To.

So tell us, how will you use your Life Planner?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

I don’t know about you, but shopping for my husband never gets easier. There are some times when I am able to luckily stumble upon the most perfect gift I could imagine. It has meaning and I know he’ll love it.

And then there are years that I am just trying my hardest to get creative to do something meaningful that he’ll love. It’s obviously the thought that counts, and when it comes to Father’s Day, just getting quality time with the kiddos is all that dads want.

For Todd, I know that if I can send him out to play golf with his dad for the day, that’s the best gift he could receive on Father’s Day.

But it’s always fun to mark the occasion with something special that he can keep.

One of my favorite stationery and all around adorable goodies shops is Nella Designs. And she happens to be located right here in Columbia, South Carolina!

Buying local and supporting local businesses is super important to me, and I just love everything in the Nella Designs shop!

Elizabeth put together a great Father’s Day gift guide and you can shop it here. Isn’t everything just perfect?

*This is not a sponsored post. I just love Nella Designs and really wanted to share these fun finds with you!